


Long Time No See

by Brittle_Bone_Gabe



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, Canon Compliant, F/M, Flashbacks, Heavy Angst, Human Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Infinity Gems, Infinity Stone Soul World (Marvel), Tony Angst, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, i am an angst god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24517999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brittle_Bone_Gabe/pseuds/Brittle_Bone_Gabe
Summary: People say life flashes before your eyes before you die, of course, nobody has possession over the Soul Stone as they die besides Tony Stark. So maybe his version of what happens when you die isn’t the same as anybody else's.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Kudos: 23





	Long Time No See

“And I… am Iron Man…”

After the words left Tony Stark’s mouth the only thing he could hear was the sound of his metal fingers clanking together as a sudden burst of power jolted through his body, a power that he’s never felt before. Of course, this was the first time Tony had actually felt a power that wasn’t his arc reactor or his suits, other than that he was _that_. A normal man in a suit of armor. Even his armor couldn’t protect him from the power of the Infinity Stones. If it weren’t for the arc reactor and the nanoparticles that lived within it then the snap wouldn’t have been possible at all, he knew this tech would’ve been good for something. 

Tony tried looking around at the scene now, it appeared as though everything was moving in slow motion and he couldn’t tell if it was from the snap or his eyes were playing tricks on him, but either way he didn’t like this. All the aliens around them were quickly turning into dust, just as Thanos did to the universe only five years prior; ruining lives and families. Even though Tony’s vision was starting to blur, he could make out the outline of Thanos taking a seat on the ground, knowing what was to come next, and Tony refused to move until he saw him disappear into dust just like all the others. The Titan looked tired, letting out a sigh, knowing he was defeated and there was nothing else he could do besides look at all the dust and destruction that was brought upon him. What he had thought would bring stability to the universe was his ultimate downfall and nothing could bring him back for this. Failed. Thanos had failed. He closed his eyes as he too turned into dust, blowing off into the wind. 

Finally, the monster was defeated.

Having his final moment of pride, Tony grunted as he used a wall of rubble as support, trying to catch his breath but it seemed impossible, and what air he did manage to breath in was filled with dust and certainly irritating his already failing lungs. He held his burnt and broken right arm close to his chest as he collapsed, pressing his back against the rubble, breathing slowly yet heavily. He knew this was his time. He knew he wasn’t going to make it back home. He knew that he was never going to see his daughter again, never going to see Pepper again. At what cost? To give her a better future. To give the universe a better future. Hopefully everyone could see what Tony Stark sacrificed here today and can understand that they now had the chance to turn everything around. 

Tony looked up just as Rhodey landed in front of him, his mask falling back into the suit to get a better look at what was going on with his friend. Tony’s suit was burnt up, mainly on the right side that spread up to his face. He was growing more and more pale, his eyes following Rhodey but seemed as though they couldn’t actually focus on anything in particular. Seeing Rhodey made Tony think about Happy, his bodyguard for years and who was currently babysitting Morgan while he and Pepper were out to fight Thanos. He was never going to give his final in person goodbye to one of his best friends.

Rhodey knelt down in front of Tony, putting a metal hand to the side of his head to make sure he was still alive. There was something oddly comforting about the coldness of the metal, giving Tony a glimpse of hope that maybe, _just maybe_ he would be able to pull through this, just as he did all those other times he should have died. _A stupid hope,_ Tony had decided, tossing the thought away as if he didn’t even have it. Too much was going through his mind right now to focus on such a silly hope.

 _“Mr. Stark?”_ Tony could hear the familiar voice of Peter Parker. Hell, the kid was quiet on his feet, Tony didn’t even notice him… or maybe it was his senses that were starting to fail him. He could feel more and more of himself starting to shut down every second and it was hell. “Hey!” Peter said calmly as he knelt down in front of the man who he thought of as a mentor.

The silence coming from Tony was extremely unnerving to both Peter and Rhodey as he was never the guy to stay silent too long. Even in a room of high tension Tony had to make a joke to get the ball rolling, whether that meant the ball was everyone turning their anger at him for making a joke at a wrong time or laughing and starting to ease up. Peter had the right to be confused, Thanos was _gone._ Shouldn’t Tony be happy about that? Happy that everything was going to be semi normal again? Why wasn’t he saying anything? Why wasn’t he expressing it? 

“Mr. Stark. Can you hear me?” Peter asked him again, putting a hand on him, trying not to let the tears fall but his sadness and panic came out through his voice that was coming out as almost a whimper. He couldn’t lose another father figure. “It’s Peter,” he pleaded, trying to get something out of Tony. “We won, Mr. Stark. We won, Mr. Stark. We won! You did it, sir, you did it.” Peter felt Rhodey put his hands on either one of his shoulders, and that’s when he couldn’t take it anymore, the tears started falling, shaking Tony slightly. “I’m sorry, Tony,” he said through his tears. 

There was so much Tony wanted to say to Peter. No. There was so much he _needed_ to say to Peter. How talented he was, how he was going to excel at life, how he was going to be a phenomenal Avenger. Unfortunately, Tony couldn’t even open his mouth to speak, no matter how much he tried to he just couldn’t. He was tired. So, so tired. He couldn’t fight anymore even though he wanted to. 

Rhodey helped Peter stand up just as Pepper came into the picture, kneeling down in front of her husband, seeing him for the last time. As heartbreaking as this was for her, Pepper knew that it was time. All she wanted to do was cry and hold him, to plead with him that it wasn’t his time to go, that they had a daughter at home but… she knew.

“Hey,” she said softly, putting a hand on Tony’s shoulder to grab his attention.

“Hey, Pep,” Tony managed to say so softly that Pepper wasn’t quite sure if it was real. It took everything he had and more, but he needed to make sure she was aware that he could hear her. Tony gently placed his hand over Pepper’s, which was now over his heart. 

“FRIDAY?” Pepper asked Tony’s AI. 

_“Life functions critical,”_ the woman AI voice responded. 

There were tears in Tony’s eyes as he was trying to gather more energy to say something more. If there was one thing left he wished he could do was say something to everyone who fought hard here today.

Pepper gave him a sad smile, trying not to break down. “Tony,” she said calmly yet firmly, “look at me. We’re gonna be okay,” she reassured him, it was so hard to not let the tears fall now, especially with the wheezing Tony was now producing. “You can rest now.” She stroked his hair until the wheezing stopped. The arc reactor went out and eventually Tony’s hand dropped from Pepper’s. 

He was gone. 

_“You need to start applying yourself.”_

_“I don’t want to go to boarding school!”_ _  
_ _“Yeah, well, maybe it’ll teach you something.”_

_“Aren’t you proud of me, dad?”  
_ _“Mhm, great. Go show Jarivs.”_

_December 16th, 1991  
_ _“I never got to say goodbye to my father.”_

_“Howard? Howard!”_

_“Did you know?”  
__“I didn’t know it was him-”_  
_“Don’t me bullshit me, Rogers. Did you know?”_ _  
_ “Yes.” 

_“What is and what will always be my greatest creation… is you.”_

_“If I were Iron Man, I’d have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She’d be a wreck. She’d always be worrying I was going to die, yet proud of the man I’ve become. She’d be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more crazy about me…”_

_“If we can’t protect the world, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.”_

_“You know what I think is really cool? This webbing. That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?”_

_“I did.”_

_“I shouldn’t be alive, unless it was for a reason. I’m not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it’s right.”_

_“You can rest now.”_

_“I love you 3000.”_

Tony gasped as he woke up, his eyes shot opened, taking in deep breaths as if he had been holding them under water. He had died, right? He felt his own heart stop, he remembered Pepper and Peter mourning him as he was slowly slipping away. He could remember the sad look on Rhodey’s face trying not to break down in front of him. He could remember Thanos and all the other aliens turn into dust after the snap he created. Why was he here? Was he given a second chance? 

He stood up, swaying slightly as he did, almost as if he had a few too many drinks the night before and was working off a hangover, complete with the headache. The world around him wasn’t covered in dust or rubble, in fact it was quite the opposite. It had a peaceful tone, the sky around him was a gentle yellow and orange blending perfectly with each other, but… nothing else was around. It was completely empty. 

“Hello?” Tony called out, looking over his shoulders and doing a full turn as if he’d find something in this great unknown. “Did I just… have too much to drink last night? What’s goin’ on?” He called out again as if someone was going to answer him.

He took a couple of steps before he stopped, suddenly hearing a calm, quiet humming from behind him. When Tony turned around he saw a man that wasn’t there before, leaning over a sink to look in the mirror that was more or less floating in the air as it wasn’t attached to anything since there was no wall to back it. Tony felt a wave of dejavu. Had he been here before? He tried to sneak a glance of the mirror to see who in the hell was shaving their face in a floating mirror in the middle of nowhere, but there was no reflection, almost as if he was a vampire. Honestly, Tony was scared to approach him, the past couple of years were a nightmare, so who knew what was going to happen next. 

“Um…” Tony started, not sure exactly what to say, “Wh-” he took a step forward but was cut off by the man. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” was all the man said, which baffled Tony. As if appearing out of nowhere, Tony was now holding a car battery that was hooked up to his chest, but the battery itself felt as though it didn’t weigh a thing. 

“What the hell’s going on?” Tony finally blurted out, not able to take this nonsense anymore. He hated not knowing what was going on around him, it drove him absolutely insane. “Where’s Thanos? I killed that son of a bitch, right?”

“Hmm…” the man hummed, turning on the sink, which logically shouldn’t have been possible due to the fact there was no way that plumbing could be hooked up to it. “You haven’t changed much, yet at the same time, you’ve grown,” was all the man said as he rinsed off his razor. 

“Wh-” Tony was once again cut off by his own doing when the man turned around and he instantly recognized the face. The man he saw in half of his dreams since he escaped from that cave in Afghanistan. “Yinsen,” he said, feeling a strange sense of warmth and comfort in the man's presence. 

“Stark,” Yinsen said with a huge smile on his face. 

Still holding onto the car battery, Stark gave Yinsen a hug, a hug which the older man returned. This was a long time coming, Yinsen had been waiting for this moment to acknowledge all that Tony has done. 

“My, my, Stark. You’ve turned into the man who has everything but nothing to a man who has everything.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Tony said as he pulled away from the hug.

“No? You wouldn’t?” Tony wasn’t sure what Yinsen was getting at. “You have a wonderful family, Stark. _That_ is what I would call everything.” Tony only nodded, feeling the tears in his eyes just thinking about Pepper and Morgan, hoping that he could just see them one last time. “All the self doubt that you had was proven wrong, was it not?”

“What do you mean?” There was so much self doubt Tony felt through his life, Yinsen had to be a little more specific than that. 

“After you escaped and got home safely all those years ago. You doubted that you had made the right choices in your life. You weren’t sure if you were worth me giving up my life. Well? You were proven wrong.” Tony opened his mouth to speak but Yinsen continued. “You saved the universe, Stark,” he said with a huge smile, putting both hands on Tony’s shoulders, “if you didn’t escape that day then… well, who would’ve saved them?” 

Tony shrugged, looking away. “Well… I mean, maybe if I didn’t escape then none of this wouldn’t have happened.” 

“Ah, ah. Don’t think that way,” Yinsen said, holding up a finger to him, “that is all in the past. What’s done is done, you proved that you are more than just a… man in a metal suit. You’re a hero. To the world, and most certainly your daughter. They will grieve, many people will grieve, but that just shows the impact you had on the world.” 

“I did some stupid things…” 

“Stupid, sure, but your heart was in the right place. Tony Stark, I am proud of you.” 

Tony blinked, his eyes were burning again as he could feel the tears starting to trinkle. That may have been the first time anyone has ever actually said that they were proud of him. For years Tony thought that his father wasn’t proud of him, but all he really wanted was to hear him say it. 

Moving forward, Tony unexpectedly hugged Yinsen again, the tears silently rolling down his cheek as he did so. 

“Everything’s going to be okay, Stark. We can rest now.”


End file.
